Gomolzig Taifun Stromlinie (GERMANY, 1949)

$125.00

One of a kind
The 1949-built car with the name Gomolzig Taifun especially caught people’s attention through its gull-wing doors. Constructor of the car was engineer Herbert Gomolzig, a visionary with a clear idea of a progressive automobile with a sporty touch. In his hometown Wuppertal, at a time when the majority of the German population were busy organizing their life after World War II and could only dream about a own small car, Herbert Gomolzig designed and built a technically sophisticated and groundbreaking vehicle.

Striking feature of the car were its gull-wing doors, which were covered to the top by simple hooked in cloth tarps. Once rolled up to the middle, these adjustable tarps conveyed a sense of driving a convertible. Gomolzig very likely reached technical limits during the realization of the visually appealing car. The thin roof strut, which served as the fixation for the gull-wing doors, gives the impression that the car body was of flimsy construction. Due to absent strengthened pillars, the lateral components should have been very stiff and solid to give the vehicle enough stability. Considering the materials and capabilities of that time, this balance between extravagant design and a stable car body appears questionable. If this was ultimately the reason why the Gomolzig Taifun never went into production is not known. Equally it is not much known about the car itself; only that it based on a BMW chassis and probably had a 4-cylinder BMW engine.

Between the years 1949 and 1951 the engineer experimented with his unique car. In 1952, after the production of the Taifun failed, Gomolzig founded an own engineering office, turned his back on the automobile industry and addressed himself to the aviation industry and engineering in general.